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Contact centers have increasingly turned to email, web chat, texting and social media to reach consumers, and non-voice channel revenues have nearly doubled since 2011, growing 91 percent. Such staggering growth of multi-channel contact centers has spurred demand for highly skilled labor, giving U.S. markets, including Chicago, the upper hand.

The $9.4 billion North American contact center outsourcing industry has grown 22 percent since 2013, according to our recent research report, and U.S. contact center employees near 2.6 million, up 35 percent in the last five years. Wonder how Chicago stacks up?

“There’s a lot of opportunity in Chicago for contact centers, Harding tells us. “With a wealth of skilled labor available at comparatively lower wages than the coasts, we expect customer service representative jobs to continue to grow at the nearly 6 percent clip of the past five years.”

Given this war for talent—not dissimilar to what we’ve seen in tech and other evolving industries—it’s no surprise that contact centers are thinking “live, work, play” when it comes to their real estate. While Plug & Play spaces offer the convenience and “move-in ready” efficiency operators require, it’s proximity to dining, gyms, parking and retail that’s helping attract and retain talent.

About JLL’s Contact Center Practice Group

JLL’s contact center professionals provide services, technologies and consultation at every turn in your journey—from location strategy to site selection, procurement, construction management and beyond. We combine real estate expertise with the latest technology—including location intelligence and predictive churn modeling—so you can have complete confidence in our methodology, recommendations and outcomes. These integrated services come together to give you the ultimate customer experience—the kind we’ll help you give your customers, in turn.

JLL's Chicago blog offers expert insight on news and trends for owners, investors and tenants of commercial real estate. Learn more about our services and our professionals to see how they’ve helped clients throughout the Chicago area with their commercial real estate needs.

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